


The fruit of discord

by jayhood



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dick Grayson is Ric Grayson, Discussion of Abortion, Family Drama, Family Secrets, Gen, Implied/Referenced Incest, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Past Jason Todd/Bruce Wayne, Past Talia al Ghul/Bruce Wayne, Unplanned Pregnancy, Wedding happens, joker dies, past Talia al Ghul/Jason Todd - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:27:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24027361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayhood/pseuds/jayhood
Summary: Catwoman doesn’t marry Batman - Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne have their (very public) wedding. Before that, though, Selina visits some of Bruce’s kids.Or, your ability to uncover family secrets is directly related to how well you can stomach it.
Relationships: Isabel Ardila/Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 26
Kudos: 55





	1. BRUCE

**Author's Note:**

> So, if you're wondering what's up with a gen fic having a lot of pairings, then please consider that it's not a shipping fic. It does not contain explicit - anything, really. I even hesitated to tag those ships but ultimately, I rather people don't read this fic if there's a possibility it triggers them. Please let me know if I should add anything else as a warning tag.  
> Also, the fic has been completed for a while, and posted on tumblr, but I only now got around to posting it here. Expect regular updates.

The whole day fit Selina as badly as her new white heels. It was her size; it seemed comfortable when she tried it on, after ten other pairs. Yet, when she got back to the house and slipped them on her feet, it hurt, slightly. New shoes often did that, before you got used to them, and before their form molded around you. That’s how she had to approach the whole thing, she decided, getting the shoes off again and stretching out on the love seat, and put her feet on Bruce’s lap. At least he looked as drained as she felt.

“ _ Why can’t you just pay people for doing it? _ ” she wanted to ask. But he  _ had _ . They had a wedding planner, and almost everything that needed to be coordinated went through Alfred. Yet, they were still expected to have opinions. Final say. Participate in cake tastings. Stand still for dress fittings.  _ Care _ .

She  _ didn’t  _ care. She had a feeling both her and Bruce would be much happier if they, say, eloped. Kidnapped a priest, or a judge, maybe. Got where they first met - on a roof, Gotham down below them, shining. Just the two of them. And someone to officiate it. And two witnesses, so that’s five. Alfred, of course; and breaking Holly out of prison wouldn’t be that hard, would it? It would be no less romantic, no less a powerful gesture than this thing they have to do.

More, even. They could exchange silly and sincere letters with all the unspoken words between them, do it instead of vows, because neither of them could actually promise to be there for another, not with their lives.

She wanted to suggest it, on the way home.

She didn’t. 

This whole thing, stretched out in time, with all this pressure on her, on them - it helped, actually. It helped her that there was a plan and expectations and deadlines. Everything so organized. It meant she had to show up. She was a burglar first and foremost, and all burglaries required a plan, and that’s what she trained herself to do. She wouldn’t step outside of it without circumstances shifting.

With eloping, there wouldn’t be a safety net containing her, making her stick to the plan, because there wouldn’t be a plan.

And she could see that night, the night of the bachelorette party, when, at the end of it, almost morning, when they all went home, Red Hood accosted her outside of the building.

It wasn’t hard to remember what he said to her. But it was terrifying.

“ _ You are good for him, _ ” he said. “ _ You are good, period. But… Good people do dumb things for wrong causes, make wrong choices for dumb reasons, all the time. _ ”

She remembered the feel of his gloves when he took her hands in his, his voice, “ _ Don’t break his heart, please _ ” - as though it would break  _ him  _ if she did. As though it would break Bruce.

And she replied to him, “ _ Kid, I’m not good. I’m not bad either. I’m practical _ ”, and rolled her eyes, and shoved him away.

But after that meeting - she thought, perhaps it is best not to give herself a chance to break Bruce’s heart.

So she tortured herself today, with the dress, and cake tastings, and table seatings, and new heels. It would be nice if Bruce got the hint, when she groaned tiredly and wiggled her toes, and started to massage her feet again.

He didn’t, so she had to open her eyes, and she saw him staring at the TV screen, his fists squeezed so tight she was glad he wasn’t holding her feet at the moment. There was a carefully blank expression on Bruce’s face. The kind where Selina, at the start of their relationships, would be hard-pressed to say if it was mad or it hid a grin. She couldn’t quite figure it out now, surprisingly, so she turned her head to the screen where a news segment from E!Gotham was broadcasting.

“ _ Honestly? The position came up out of blue and I saw an opportunity. Naturally, I asked myself…  _ "

“That’s good,” Selina smirked, seeing Vicky Vale shoving her microphone under Jason’s nose. He looked good, with his hair longer, in a shirt with real sleeves. “Now you can finally send him an invite and not worry about how it would look to get your dead son to show up at the reception.”

Bruce said, “He is not my son,” and got up rather suddenly, turning the TV off, right after “ _ What would Bruce Wayne do? _ ”. So alright, it wasn’t a smirk after all. “He made it clear he does not consider us his family. He told me to write him a check when I asked him to be around on the night of your bachelor party. That’s when he got the idea, I bet. I did it, and I wrote down Jason Peter Todd as the recipient. He probably bought the club with this money.”

Selina sighed. “Yes, he’s stubborn and contrary, that’s  _ totally  _ not something he would learn from you. But how about not looking a gift horse in the mouth and using that rare chance to reconcile? I talked to him, you know. He cares about you.”

Bruce took a step forward, closed to the TV screen, now black and shiny, but not enough for Selina to decipher the expression on his face in the reflection. His stiff shoulders did not give away much.

“Believe me, he wants to go to our wedding as much as I want to invite him. Drop it.”

Men. Honestly.

But Selina dropped it. At least, with Bruce.


	2. ALFRED

They did tell Alfred to get seating arrangements changed, and another invitation issued, and also there was a need to inform caterers… So, of course, they told Alfred.

From his face, and a wrapped cut on his hand, it was obvious Alfred saw the news already, so he wasn’t surprised.

Alfred still asked Bruce, though. 

“My boy, are you sure it’s the right course of action?”. 

Bruce nodded, tersely, and as though a life or death situation, not a guest list.

Selina couldn’t hold a laugh.

“Come on, Alfred!” she said. “You raised the boy, after all. Are you saying you’re not confident in your manner-instilling skills?”

“I love Jason as if he is my own,” Alfred said, not looking at Bruce. “But he was here with me only for a short while, and I wasn’t the best guardian for him, as things turned out. Besides, he had other influences in life, less healthy.”

“He will be fine,” Bruce said, frowning and meeting Alfred’s gaze. “Jason will, undoubtedly, make everything as difficult as possible, for everyone, including himself. But he knows where the line is. I doubt even at his most bitter he would want to cross it.”

“While I am quite confident in you and your opinions usually,” Alfred said, “It is a rather special case. After all, you could never quite predict him, could you?”

“No,” Bruce said, and there was a hint of a smile, damn it. Selina was sure of it. “I could not.”

Alfred sighed.

“I better give him the invitation personally, next time I see him. Perhaps, it would soothe some feathers, at least.”

“And when would it be?” Bruce frowned again. “Your Sunday dinners - are you doing it again?”

“Indeed we are. Master Jason is in Gotham again, after all.”

Alfred looked at Bruce like he dared him to comment on it. Bruce didn’t.

Selina decided not to approach Alfred about Jason either. Not when Bruce could hear it, at least.

So she approached him early the next morning, while Bruce was still sleeping off the patrol. Why he still bothered with them, Selina didn’t quite get; Gotham didn’t get calmer than that. All the villains - except, maybe, Joker - seemed to lie low. Nobody saw or heard from Black Mask in a while. Mr. Freeze was in total compliance with his parole terms. Ivy and Harley did their own thing, outside of city limits. They probably wouldn’t show up even at the wedding, which, Selina was slightly discomfited about. Even if making them tone down their… everythingness, to fly under the radar of civilians, would be cruel, so it was for the best, all things considered. 

Penguin sold his business and ran away to Europe, probably, or perhaps Canada, nobody was too sure. Maybe Hood would know but it’s not like Selina would ask. 

Gotham, Batgirl, and Spoiler handled things on street-level. Bizarro’s organized crime prevention algorithms, Selina heard from through grapevine, did horrible, horrible things for  _ the business _ . A vigilante in high-tech armor whose identity Bruce was yet to figure out, named Wingman, helped to put Bizarro’s schemes into action when GCPD dropped the ball.

So there wasn’t much for Bruce to do. Yet there he was; and at home, at nights, he  _ wasn’t _ .

He didn’t trust the quiet, Selina mused. Perhaps he was right to do so. He had more experience in that hero business than her, he would know.

Most importantly, it gave Selina an opportunity. So she used it.

Damian wasn’t there, Selina usually had the same sleeping habits as Bruce, yet she had a feeling she would find Alfred in the kitchen, and she wasn’t wrong.

“Smells delicious,” she said moderately-cheerful.

It smelled if she was frank, stomach-turning. Lately, her nose was more sensitive, probably because she didn’t hang out with chain smokers anymore. Selina almost tasted the burnt sugar in the air.

“You are too kind, Miss Kyle,” Alfred said dryly, throwing out the contents of the pan in the garbage bin. He almost murmured to himself, adding something or other to the batter in a bowl. “Making waffles, I do not know what I was thinking, honestly. I never got it right, not to his standards. Perhaps, today I will have to show up empty-handed.”

“Show up where? Your Sunday dinners with Jason?”

Alfred looked back at her, then, more alert than he was previously, as only now he shed the heavy feeling of failure he wasn’t used to feeling, and thus revelled in every time he did.

“Brunch,” he said after a slight pause like he weighed if he could trust her with this tidbit of information. Selina didn’t know if she was supposed to be hurt about it. “This time. Today… our plans slightly changed, and we can’t meet at a diner, as was our habit before. So I thought perhaps whipping up his favorite brunch food would be nice.”

“So you’re coming over to him, right?” No way Jason Todd was invited to Manor, after all. “Don’t want to give him an invite in public?”

Selina didn’t understand, really, what the big deal about it was. Yet, she allowed that she wasn’t around for the worse of Red Hood’s post-resurrection rampage. Maybe all the tip-toeing and the drama was deserved.

Probably not.

“It was actually Master Jason’s idea and invitation,” Alfred said, turning away again and making himself busy with a teapot. 

Selina shrugged mentally and made herself a coffee.

Fuck, where did they buy these beans? The coffee tasted like acid.

Her stomach growled.

She tried to drown out the noise by asking Alfred another question. Also, she was curious, which - for cats, curiosity was something life-bringing, if you remember the second part of the famous proverb. 

“Any special occasion?” 

Alfred hesitated to answer again.

“Yes, indeed.” 

He looked at the cup of tea he was holding between his hands as though it had all the answers. 

Selina was slightly jealous. Her cup contained nothing more than vile poison. Maybe a smudge of milk would rescue it? She tried it out. It didn’t.

“I do not know for sure,” Alfred continued when Selina ceased to expect it. 

It was as though - no, it was exactly that Alfred didn’t have anyone else to talk about it with. People who knew Jason Todd and Alfred both were few and far between. Those who would be willing to talk about him, to Alfred, Selina had a feeling, were even fewer. None, maybe, except her.

She didn’t know Jason Todd though, not exactly. When he was Robin, Bruce kept them separate. It made sense. At the time their relationships had gotten worse. At best, what they had was very charged hate-sex. Sometimes it felt like Bruce was trying to prove something to himself. Selina, at the time trying to prove to herself she didn’t like or needed him all that much, didn’t really try to figure it out all that hard.

“But I think he wants to acquaint me with someone.”

“His teammates?” 

“No, I met Miss Grace and Mister Bizarro already, and, of course, I knew Miss Anders and Mister Harper from the time they were first friends with Master Dick. No, I think, perhaps it’s a girl,” Alfred said, and added quietly. “Or, a boy. A man. A person.”

“Oh?” Selina smiled. “That’s cute. Did he do that before? Invited people home so you could meet them and give them a seal of approval?”

“No.”

Alfred drank some tea, carefully.

“No, he did not. There was no one to… take home, or for me to - to meet.”

“Seriously?” 

Alright, so Selina just said so herself that she didn’t really know Jason when he was a kid. But what she did glimpse of him - he seemed to have such a boisterous personality. Maybe he was brash, or even rude. But so full of life. And, before he died, he was, how old again? 

“He lived with you guys for three years, right? Until he was sixteen?”

Alfred didn’t reply, even something like “he had other concerns - being vigilante”, maybe because that never seemed to stop Dick. Or, “he preferred to focus on his studies”, which didn’t put a wrench on Tim’s social life, as far as Selina remembered what little she knew about it (though Tim didn’t finish high school, so). Or, “there weren’t that many people he had shared or similar life experience” - perhaps Damian’s chances of that were even less and yet he had good, even great friends. He must have - otherwise, where was he spending all his days and sometimes nights, weekends? Not even “his upbringing left him emotionally stunted and incapable of forming meaningful relationships with his peers”, which would fit Cassandra to a point - the point where she overcame it far quicker than Selina herself had. And her father wasn’t even 40% of messed up David Cain was. 

“It sounds great,” Selina offered. “It’s great you and him still have such great relationships.”

“Hmm. I am afraid - we don’t, not really. He treats me with fondness. As though I am  _ a relic _ from simpler times, even if when he lived here it was everything but simple. We did not get along at first, and I am ashamed to confess my distrust of the situation, whether or not it was deserved, was as much at fault as his limited ability to trust adults.”

He chuckled, staring at the wall. His eyes were slightly shimming. 

“Did you know he was quite stubborn about allowing me to call him Master Jason? He would rant or call me “Mister Pennyworth” to rile me up. I don’t think he ever understood why I chose to address the family so. He still, I’m quite certain, doesn’t. He allowed it and continues to allow it because it gives him a certain level of detachment. I am a well-meaning, somewhat-competent butler, an old and lonely man, to be indulged. Never family. 

“That’s awful,” Selina said, unexpectedly for herself.

But she felt for Alfred right now, she really did.

“Never family,” Alfred repeated, and he returned back to Selina, meeting her eyes. “So I am, in his eyes, safe. You wouldn’t know but - Master Jason found his father, again. His biological one, presumed dead even before Jason came to live with us. He consciously decided he was not going to - to build relationships with him. He refuses even to acknowledge a link between them. So, I wouldn’t call it awful. It is what it is. Perhaps, what I even deserve. After all, when it was required, I failed to protect him.”

“Alfred, stop. Even Bruce couldn’t - you wouldn’t want Bruce to blame himself for Jason’s death, would you?”

“It is not what I meant.”

Selina felt a creeping feeling of nausea. This fucking coffee.

“Excuse me for a moment,” she said, not quite running to the nearest bathroom. 

When she returned to the kitchen, it was already empty.


	3. RIC

Because of his amnesia and the whole reinventing himself-shtick, Ric refused to move to Gotham, which aggravated Bruce very, very much. But for Selina, it was a great advantage. Bruce wouldn’t hear about their meeting for a long time after the fact, if at all.

Of course, the memory loss part of amnesia had not helped Selina any. Especially when the first thing Ric did after meeting her was to hit on her.

“Sorry kid, been there done that, neither one of us would enjoy a repeat of this particular train wreck,” Selina said.

“Well,” Ric said, giving her a once-over. “That was him, Dick, and that’s me.”

“You lost your memories,” Selina pointed out. “Not your habits, or preferences. Your  _ experience _ , maybe - but that is not a good thing, is it? Anyway, that was when me and Bruce were on a break. Right now it would be just weird."

"As weird as you showing up to ensure I go to a wedding between the man who raised me and the woman I slept with? Both of whom - look, I wish you the best, but I don't  _ know _ you."

"Even your estranged brother is going to go," Selina said, though she wasn't as confident in it as Bruce was.

“You mean Jason?” 

There was so much disbelief in Ric’s voice.

Well, that was surprising. 

“So you remember him?”

Ric made a flapping motion with his hand.

“Not really. He visited me a few times. Wasn’t an asshole. Unlike some others, he didn’t have any issues calling me Ric. He said he totally gets it. Apparently, he lost his memories too, a while back - the happiest he was in years, he said, so if I didn’t want to go back, I shouldn’t let anyone pressure me. So excuse me if I doubt he's really gonna show up at your wedding.”

Selina hummed. 

“Your father thinks he will, even if just to spite him.”

Ric scowled right back. 

“That man is not our father. We  _ had  _ parents.”

“Jason had it differently, with his family situation,” Selina pointed out. “At least, that’s what I heard.”

“So maybe his father was an asshole, and Jason hated him, so what? It still was his father, and Bruce - what kind of parent does that to his kids? Place them in danger?”

“Ha!” Selina said, remembering the first night she met a Robin. The gumption of him. The thrill he so obviously felt. All others after him, they were just like that. “I would have paid to see Bruce trying to stop you.  _ You  _ wanted that, not him.”

Ric scrunched his face in disbelief. 

“That’s even more disturbing to hear from you than when you told me we slept together. He was an  _ adult _ . It didn’t matter what we wanted - we could have wanted to eat a three-pound cake all at once instead of dinner, stay well up our bedtime playing violent video games, or take up underage drinking. Cocaine. Sleep with way too old strangers at high school parties. Doesn’t mean that’s what he needed to allow or encourage.”

“Or, he trusted you to make choices, face consequences and learn from it.”

“Or, you know,  _ die _ ,” Ric said. “I know you two an item, so you probably think you need to show a united front, or whatever. But - excuse me for, you know, mentioning it in case that’s not,  _ you know _ , but - if you two ever have a child, are you going to let them do this thing too? Are you going to let  _ him _ ?”

Selina tried not to let her distaste show on her face. He was right, she didn’t appreciate him broaching the kids topic. She didn’t even talk about it with Bruce.

“Well, you all turned out alright,” she said.

Ric looked at her disbelievingly, and then around the dingy bar, and then back at her. 

“And,” he put his finger up, “Let me remind you - Jason. Or, hm, Damian.”

“Tim is okay, though,” Selina said.

“I haven't yet met him, but a gut feeling tells me it says more about him than Bruce.”

It wasn’t a lie. But - Bruce had gotten better, lately, hadn’t he? After he and Selina got serious? 

Had he? She didn’t really see him interact with the kids in that time, much.

No, she told herself, they just grew up, got their own lives, that's why they weren't around that much. Except for Damian, but how Damian was, it wasn't so bad, and, most importantly, it wasn't on Bruce.


	4. TIM AND CASS

Tim and Cassandra met her together, at breakfast.

“You know,” Tim said after half-hour of catching up, almost ruefully shaking his head. “Never thought I would see this day. Catwoman and Batman, marrying.”

“Not them,” Cassandra intercepted, looking at Tim with reproach. “Selina, and Bruce.”

“Well,” Tim said, swallowing “ _ same thing _ “ on a tip of his tongue, probably. He sighed. “Joker still goes around moaning he never got an invitation.”

And wasn’t that concerning. So far, Selina knew, Joker killed a bunch of Ra’s assassins, a few Riddler’s henchmen, and almost sabotaged her bachelorette night.

“But hey, if Jason gets you something for the wedding - that’s right up his valley!”

Somehow, Selina didn’t think Bruce would be appreciative of the dead Joker as a gift. Even if she certainly would be.

“No,” she and Cassandra both said. 

Selina gestured to her to go ahead - the girl was too quiet as it is, it was always nice to hear her speak.

Cassandra nodded at her and continued, shaking her head at Tim. “He will leave it to Harley.”

“Barbara said that?” Tim scrunched up his nose. “Or he did? I mean…”

“I do not talk to him,” Cassandra said.

Tim looked like he wanted to argue with her about that, so Selina added.

“Besides, he already gave me a gift.”

She told them about that night, in the club. It would be ruined if not for him. She wasn’t sure how he even knew about this club. She doubted Bruce even knew she used to go there. When everything was so shitty she just needed to get out of her head for a while. Drum and bass helped. Moving her body along the music helped. 

He looked familiar with the club, then. He seemed full of the same nostalgia she felt herself, getting there after almost thirty years since the last time.

It would be less for him. Yet he looked there even more out of place than she was, with her girlfriends, all in designer dresses and heels.

“ _ Wanna dance? _ ” she asked, then. Not out of pity. She just felt that mix of being calm (or, not  _ anxious _ ) and excited, and she wanted to share it.

“ _ Yeah, _ ” he said, longing, watching people around them move. But he left.

Tim’s face read “ _ that’s surprisingly decent of him _ ”. Selina decided not to tell him about the check Bruce wrote to Jason. And then she changed her mind - it was ridiculous. Bruce being passive-aggressive at Jason, writing Jason’s real name at the check, which he couldn’t legally use. Jason coming back from the dead in the eyes of law,  _ just to spite him _ , and probably using the money he got to buy out the business of one of Bruce’s main villains. 

It was hilarious, wasn’t it?

But Cassandra looked upset. Tim, though, snorted.

“Bruce  _ wishes  _ it was about him. Jason probably has yet another crazy scheme, or maybe it’s Bizarro who does. They probably want to hostile-takeover all the legitimate fronts of Gotham crime bosses or something like that.” 

For a moment, his face turned thoughtful, as if he considered if it was worth to make Wayne Enterprises look into it themselves. He shook his head and turned back to Selina. 

“Not everything we do is about Batman. It’s, frankly, a little insulting to imply this. Even about Jason, though  _ yes _ , he had the worst case of it for a while. He got better though, sometime after he got with Outlaws.”

Cassandra nodded. “Support system.”

“Yeah. Me, Dick, Cass, even the little demon? We all have our own teams. And before Roy and Kori, and later Artemis and Biz, and others, he was too warped, wrapped around Bruce, because that’s all he knew. Of course, he would cling to it. But now he doesn’t actually need Bruce anymore. He even got a girlfriend, now! He moved on, you know. But in  _ Bruce’s  _ mind, he  _ didn’t _ . Bruce has done it before, you know. Preserved Jason in a neat glass case - not the actual memories of him, but the idea, you know. Used it to teach me, or Cass, even Steph, a lesson.”

Tim threw the fork on the table.

“Now, though, I don’t even know why he does this. But that’s just another version of Jason under a glass.”

“You’re very passionate about him,” Selina observed. She smiled knowingly.

In her head, there were a lot of bells, ringing aloud “ _what the fuck?_ _what the fuck?_ ”, so she was glad she sounded light-hearted and amused.

Cassandra grinned too, and elbowed Tim. Tim groaned exasperatedly. 

“Cass, for the love of… I know you and Steph love to insinuate things, and you must feel validated with Selina on your side? But just because a man expresses a little empathy…”

“Doesn’t mean he has a crush on his brother?” Selina finished.

“Come on! It even  _ sounds  _ wrong! But more than that - he tried to kill me! More than once!”

Cassandra’s face was fake-innocent. “You say he is better.”

“Don’t throw my own words at me! I said it just so you would at least try to meet him, get to know him…”

All playfulness went from Cassandra’s face or tone. 

“He is a killer still. Horrible things happen to people every day.  _ You  _ are not a killer. I am not a killer. Selina is not a killer. Bruce is not a killer.”

Tim rubbed his brow. “He  _ was _ a killer, Cass.”

Cassandra carefully placed her fork beside her plate, carefully stood up, and carefully closed the door behind her.

Tim sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

“Shit. I promised I’d lay off - wouldn’t pressure her into getting to know Jason. It’s just…” He looked at Selina, almost desperate to explain himself. “She doesn’t like him but she doesn’t know him. All she heard was from Bruce, and police and news reports, and that was enough for her to form an opinion. Which is - valid, with her background. But only if she’d dig deeper! I mean, isn’t it the reason why we don’t kill? Because, ultimately,  _ everyone  _ is capable of change? Not anyone is beyond redemption? Forgiveness is chicken soup for the soul? I don’t know!”

“I think,” Selina said, mustering her own thoughts on the matter. “You forgive a person not based on a philosophy, or moral, or ethics, but because you want to forgive them.”

Bruce, it looked like, didn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Comments make my day!  
> 2) If you're like me and you're suspicious about multichaptered fics where 1 chapter is less than at least 5k words, you can find the unedited but completed version of this fic on [tumblr](https://redjaybathood.tumblr.com/tagged/Fruit-of-Discord)  
> It's a good way to send questions you have about this fic, if you have them.


	5. DAMIAN

It was telling that Selina got a question about their plans about kids from two of Bruce’s sons, and they were yet to discuss it between themselves. What exactly it was saying about them - or about her because she was the one with the pregnancy test in her bag earlier that afternoon she took Damian to the tailor - she didn’t want to ponder.

She answered Damian as honestly as she could muster.

_ Bruce’s  _ opinion didn’t matter.

The only thing she had left to decide is if she wanted to tell him about the appointment. 

The wedding would be in a few days. She was expected at the clinic a week after that.

Bruce’s opinion  _ didn’t  _ matter. But he had an uncanny ability to know about everyone’s business. And, as Tim said, a tendency to make everything about him. So it was a good chance that he would treat it as his failure, that Selina didn’t think he would be a good father.

Also, she didn’t want to put to test Bruce’s belief in women’s body autonomy vs Batman’s feelings about the sanctity of all life.

She tried to shake these thoughts off. She had nine days to figure it out. It was better to focus on the present.

“What are you thinking about?” she murmured to Damian.

He stopped smiling a little after they shook their hands. God, she hoped she didn’t fuck things up with him. Maybe she should have allowed him to call her mom. With Talia, it wouldn’t be surprising if he wanted another one. Wasn’t that why all the kids took to Bruce so much? Not Dick, probably. He loved his parents. But Tim, yes, and  _ Jason _ , obviously. That’s how they described - or, rather, alluded TO, because never someone raised by Alfred Pennyworth would utter something so crass. Daddy issues.

Selina hoped as hell Damian would grow up without mommy issues. She feared his teenage years. Oh god, but what if Damian got a crush on her then?

“Todd,” Damian replied, and for a second, Selina felt relief. Maybe she wouldn’t need to worry about that crush after all. “I do not understand why someone so untrustworthy would be allowed to attend the event as important as it is.”

“I thought you found the snitch who sold your team out to the Other? And it wasn’t Todd?”

“I did,” Damian said. 

Selina looked at him prompting, so after a while, he turned his head so he would face straight ahead, and continued. Selina couldn’t see his expression, now. But he was talking in that even, calm tone he used when topics he broached were too morbid or distasteful even for him. 

“I was not wrong to suspect Todd though. I was  _ not _ . He is not loyal to anyone or anything. He was with my father. Then, he was with my mother, for a time. She took him in. Cared for him. Taught him. They were lovers, even. I think. The rumors said before she managed to strangle them.”

_ “Rumors _ ,” Selina thought to herself, " _ or the people who had loose tongues?”. _

“I believe it. It was the most selfless thing I ever knew her to do. And he still left.”

“If they were together, like that, kid, I wouldn’t say it was totally selfless from her side,” Selina said, half-regretting it as soon as it came out of her mouth because Damian, with all his complex relationships with Talia, did not need to hear this shit about his mother. Yet, what he needed to understand, that it wasn’t okay. “He was how old? Seventeen? And totally under her influence. I don’t think - Damian, okay, just. You know what the definition of consent is?”

Damian scoffed. 

“He was old enough to fight crime, old enough to kill, old enough to die. You, with your misplaced pity, you are doing him a disservice, robbing him of the agency. He was capable of making his own choices. He wasn’t a  _ child _ .”

It was hard to say, after Damian’s “old enough to fight” part of the speech, if he was defending his mother’s honor against the accusation of statutory rape, or was he having an entirely different conversation about another boy who grew up too fast and despised being treated as a kid only when it was convenient to people.

It was hard to care for Selina. Because this issue was too important to her. And it seemed like Bruce never got around to have a talk with Damian. Not “your body is changing talk”, Damian was probably too smart and educated to need that, but a “yes means yes” talk. Did it mean she needed to do that, catch the ball where Bruce dropped it? Or would it be overstepping? Did she give a damn about overstepping, when the alternative would mean a boy growing up to be an adult with some really messed up views on sex and relationships and sexual abuse and the difference between all that? If she didn’t, how can she just change his mind with one conversation?

“People die at any age,” Selina said evenly. “At sixteen, at eleven, at six. In the cradle. It does not make you a grown-up. And people could kill at any age, too.”

Damian lowered his head. That was something she suspected about his life before he came to Gotham.

Selina rubbed her forehead. Well, she wanted a distraction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like it, leave a comment and/or check out my [tumblr](https://redjaybathood.tumblr.com/)


	6. ISABEL

After the week she had, at the time the actual wedding rolled around, she kind of hated Jason Todd. Alive again, he still haunted his family, being a fruit of discord. Not one conversation about him didn’t leave her without a bad taste in Selina’s mouth.

Perhaps, she was being unfair. He was - he seemed sincere enough when he talked to her. Like it was important to him for Bruce to be happy, somehow, even after everything.

Or, maybe, only he was allowed to make Bruce unhappy.

Jason didn’t show up for the actual ceremony. 

Selina and Bruce got to exchange love letters, after all. They didn’t need to be censured that much, anyway. When Selina and Bruce took a turn reading it out loud and made a pause or skipped a section, everyone who didn’t know thought it was about their nightlife rather the _nightlife_ , and found it cute. People in the know thought it was cute anyhow. 

It was damn cute alright. 

The atmosphere shifted soon after the reception started. Bruce and Selina got their dance, and now was standing around, getting congratulations and well-wishes from family, friends, and people neither one of them knew. Bruce handled everything with his usual Brucie cheer. Selina got bored and stiff after five minutes of this. She almost regretted not bringing up the elopement. Of course, it would probably mean she would need to tell him about the upcoming visit to a doctor a lot sooner than she planned, which would be - _tomorrow_ , she promised herself. 

It wasn’t like she placed so much faith into the marriage as an institution, she felt compelled to tell her husband every secret. She planned to keep a few, as Bruce was going to, undoubtedly. Yet.

Yet.

But that’s tomorrow. Tonight was for celebration. Even if, in her humble opinion, it would be much better if they just snuck out, or if she at least could take off the heels. Still didn’t feel right. Even worse than that. Like every additional hour in these fucking glass slippers make her feet grow a little wider, it felt like. She regretted spending thirty-three thousand dollars on them.

She regretted ever agreeing to this farce. She knew why it was important to make this big public _thing_ out of it, Bruce Wayne the billionaire marrying an ex-con Selina Kyle. Just make them believe there’s nothing to see here, no siree, just a rich playboy getting himself tricked into a no-prenup by a professional gold-digger. People will get bored quickly if they don’t hide. Tomorrow, no one ever would remember anything about this evening.

If Bruce didn’t say or do something stupid, like punch his wayward son in the face in front of everyone. 

Selina shifted her gaze from the CEO of something or other and his young ‘protege’ to the stifling line of Bruce’s shoulders, who dropped his hand down from where it was resting on Selina’s back. She followed his line of sight.

Jason didn’t inherit Bruce’s sense of style, unlike all others. His hair was sleeked back with too much hair product. The clothes he wore looked too much like the suit and red shirt he first appeared in the public eye. And, although Selina wasn’t so catty as to judge other women’s appearances, his girlfriend chose to wear a bright electric blue dress, and they clashed terribly. The dress was shorter than the average length of skirt among guests but that, on its own, would be fine. But those bizarre long bell sleeves? It would have looked okay if they were shorter, or made of lace, Selina supposed.

Okay, so she was that catty, Selina allowed herself to admit. Selina was sure Jason’s girlfriend was a perfectly nice girl, otherwise. She looked nice enough, blond, long-legged, empty-headed.

Bruce allowed himself exactly one-second glance in her direction, when Jason and his plus one approached, and then dismissed her outright.

Instead, he moved toward Jason, laughing as fake as Jason smiled, and giving him one-handed hug, clapping him on the back with too much force.

“Haha,” Bruce said. “After you called security on me at the casino, I wasn’t sure you would show up.”

Yeah, _that_ little piece of information Bruce didn’t share. Nor the fact he decided to meet with Jason, and certainly not how the meeting went. On the other hand, Selina did try to evade him, the last few days.

“Haha,” Jason said. “Your wedding? I wouldn’t miss it if I was _dead_. Selina, you look the loveliest. Sorry, Iz, but she is the bride, them's the rules, haha. Selina, Bruce, this is Isabel, my girlfriend.”

Bruce put his hand on Jason's shoulder and squeezed.

“I thought Kory was your girlfriend, haha. Or that Artemis woman.”

“Haha, what a joker." Jason clapped Bruce on the chest. "Kory was Dick’s girlfriend, do try to keep us all straight, would you, though it is hard in your case, with how many kids you accumulated over the years, haha. And now she is with Roy. And Artemis, _goddess_ , would she get a laugh out of that!”

“You do look very lovely, really,” Isabel said to Selina, keeping on smiling and trying to ignore Bruce in response.

“Thank you,” she said, try to add a genuine feeling to her smile. Neither she nor the woman was to blame for their men being a little fucked up about each other. Or for that annoying fake laughter. “Your dress is one of the kind.”

“Thanks! I sewed it special for this evening.”

Bruce turned his gaze to Isabel, then, making a step behind. He was still smiling. The look in his eyes was something he used to get when he had to shake hands with Sionis or Cobblepot, on parties not unlike this one, back in the day.

“How charming but, perhaps, I could offer Jason the name of my tailor? Your design, of course, is very nice, if a bit obvious, if you want to hide any... marks on your hands,” he said. “You shouldn’t have to go to all this trouble, though - it is not like such thing would be surprising, with company Jason keeps. Nobody would bat a lash.”

Jason’s smile slipped from fake to a “what the fuck” category. Isabel’s expression didn’t change.

“You are very kind! Jason, didn’t you say he was a, how did you put it, a _raging asshole_? Jason, you were being unfair.” Isabel put one hand on the small of his back and slapped him playfully on his chest with the other, and Jason caught it and took to his lips, kissing her fingers.

Isabel turned back to Bruce. 

“But I love making designs myself, thank you, this dress suits my needs just fine.”

Bruce turned back to Jason, shoving his hands to his pockets. “Pretty, and with a hobby too! How did you meet her?” 

“Remember that big fight we had where I ended up running away from home? And went to _Ethiopia_ , of all places? She was the flight attendant.”

If remembering events before Jason’s death disturbed Bruce, he didn’t show it. Except _it did_ , Selina thought, because there he was turning against the poor girl again.

“Oh? And that would make her how old, again?”

This got Jason to drop the smile off his face entirely. Isabel took her hands off him. Jason hissed: 

“Two years older than me, thanks, not _twenty-one_.” 

It was a strange thing to say. A reference to something. Was _Talia_ that much older than Jason? She didn’t _look_ like she was the same age as Bruce but that wasn’t saying much. 

Would Bruce even know about them? If he didn’t, should have Selina said something? 

No, she decided. It wasn’t Bruce’s business who Talia or Jason slept with.

“Hmm,” Bruce said. “So, a stewardess. And you know her for quite a long while, but that’s the first I’m hearing about.”

Jason looked at him in disbelief. Before he could open the mouth, though, Isabel stepped up. 

“You know Jason was sixteen then, right? We met again, on a plane, a couple of years back. Didn’t even recognize each other at first. I was just charmed by his obliviousness to my attempt to flirt with him, so I slipped him my number.”

“Doesn’t sound like you, champ,” Bruce said. “Usually you know what you want and just go for it! And if you _don’t_ , then you don’t want that.”

Jason worked his jaw. Yet, he didn't make any retort, allowing Isabel to speak.

“Well, we went on one date, after that, which was nothing short of disastrous on so many levels,” Isabel said, smiling at Jason. He smiled right back. “Also, our schedules didn’t match up then. Both of our jobs kept us on the road.”

“You told her about your job, champ? Haha, it seems like even I don’t know what you get up to.”

There were limits to even Isabel's reserves of patience. She seemed fed up with Bruce ignoring her. She turned to Selina, determining to finish the story.

“But after he came back to Gotham, well. It seemed like fate.”

“I’m sure it did,” Bruce chuckled. 

At this point, Selina was ready to throttle all three of them. 

"I need a drink", she proclaimed.

She meant to go hit the bar but a waiter materialized from a thin air like he was staying somewhere listening in.

He had a tray with four glasses full of violet shimmery liquor of some kind. 

"Selina," Bruce said when she got the glass.

'Nice of him to finally notice me', she thought, knocking the liquor back, and knocking his hand away. 

"Selina," Bruce said again, his voice even more strained.

Jason shifted his stance.

Bruce continued, "Alfred wouldn't approve any alcohol except champagne to be distributed among guests, outside of bar area."

Jason shifted again, attempting to grasp the waiter.

The waiter side-stepped though, only one glass splashing the liquid to the ground.

"Hey now," the Joker said. 

It was eerie how much a little of spray tan and hair dye could go. "I know nanite-refined liqueur is a bit untraditional choice of a celebratory drink but hardly worth punching the waitstaff. You're the Waynes, of course, you can afford it. But, well, if anyone lays a hand on me, Harley is going to detonate them."


	7. JOKER

"Before you say anything else," Joker said, pulling his free hand inside his suit jacket. 

His brows furrowed, his tongue showing in the corner of his mouth. 

It took some time. Bruce didn't take his eyes off him all the way, and neither Jason or Isabel. The girl looked spooked, understandably so, if she figured out who this man was and what nanites are. The name 'Harley' was probably a big giveaway (which, also,  _ what _ ? What happened to ' _ I'll make him respect me _ '?). Jason, like Bruce, didn't give any of his emotions away. They looked so alike at that moment, they could be brothers.

"Aha!" Joker pulled out a gun from somewhere inside the suit.

Looking at how long the barrel was, Selina couldn't guess how.

Joker shot at the ceiling. People ran to the exits which were, predictably, closed, and windows were blocked somehow. Friends and family stayed at their places. But  _ the cameras _ , the cameras were still rolling. Clark, hugging Jon by the shoulders, with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen at the other side of the ballroom, couldn't do much. Pretty much every hero or vigilante had to stay put.

"You people are going to want to stay where you are," Joker yelled. "Or things are going to start to blow up!"

"And if we do, they're not," Selina said dryly. 

She kept the hand on her abdomen, squeezing, which was dumb. Nanites were in her bloodstream already, probably, and the only thing that was  _ there  _ was a blob of cells. If that was the only thing she risked, she would have taken Joker out herself. Saved her a trip to a doctor.

See? That kind of thinking was why the trip was necessary.

"Where would be fun in that? No, I am going to give all of you a chance." He winked at her and turned to the audience. "All of you people, actually! Listen up! Anybody - anybody who wants to leave, here's your chance! It's just a little amusing game for newlyweds. This ' _ how well do you know your partner _ ' quiz, everybody's familiar with that? Yes? Good, great, so: they play, they win - everyone goes home early. They play, they lose - well, they wouldn't be able to lose, really, because the little something I mixed up with their drinks? It won't allow them to say a lie. So at least they're going to learn more about each other at the end, and that's a win-win for everyone! And all is needed from you, my  _ captive  _ audience is to enjoy the show!"

Clark, Diana, Oliver, Dinah, Barbara - they tried to corral the crowd before (with Tim mostly trying to keep Damian from running straight at Joker with something that wasn't a butter knife at all), with various degrees of success, but after the Joker's words, the guests seemed to settle down, a little.

Gothamites became too accustomed to this shit. You get them in a hostage situation, explain the stakes, explain the rules, and they will be patiently sitting on their asses and wait for Batman to save them if  _ their  _ lives are not directly in danger.

But Selina had to admit that at least they were not adding chaos and panic to an already precarious situation, so all was well. 

"So, Bruce, what says you?" the Joker said, jiggling a tray with three glasses left with one hand, and pointing the gun at him with another. "Bottoms up? Your wifey already got a dose. You're not going to leave her hanging, are you? That's cold even for you."

Bruce took the glass.

"Let me get this clear," he said. "I am to drink this, and I either answer truthfully to your questions, or I am going to blow up?"

Joker laughed. "No,  _ she  _ is going to blow up. She is also going to blow up if you  _ don _ 't drink. Nah-ah, no more stalling! If you're thinking someone outside you undoubtedly left just to check perimeter or what have you, is going to find Harley - she's not actually on the premises. She's back at the water tower she tried to trap me in today. In a pudding - can you believe it? Well, I can, that's just  _ so Harley _ . She tries to be ironic but there's a reason there aren't any good female comedians, am I right?"

"And I suppose you're telling me this means when someone shows up there, Harley is going to fight them tooth and nail. And probably she will blow the nanites anyway if it seems like she's loosing. You wouldn't be so confident in disclosing the identity of your assistant, or their location, otherwise. What do you have on her?"

"That's rude of you," Joker said. "I am told people are, well,  _ people _ , not things."

Selina's heart, already working overtime, just seemed to speed up. Because that - that meant Ivy was in trouble. Whatever Harley had planned, to keep Joker away at the time of the wedding and the party, he's seen right through. And went ahead and got himself insurance.

While Bruce was talking, all of Joker's attention was on him. It had allowed Jason to get Isabel to step away, little by little, for almost one and a half feet, before the Joker noticed and zeroed in on them.

"I'm sorry, is it rude of me not to pay attention to guests? How about - how about you two join in? You're a couple, too? Going steady? I'm sure I can find a couple of questions for you."

"I hate party games," Jason said.

Joker aimed the gun at Isabel.

"Could be fun, though," Jason said, getting a glass for both himself and Isabel, and returning to her side.

Joker turned back to Bruce and Selina.

"Sooner to start, sooner to finish, Brucie!"

Bruce knocked back the whole glass back in one swallow and then threw it to the floor.

"Explosive temperament not a sign of a good husband," Joker tsked. He eyed Selina, "Though people habitually wearing leather bodysuit could be into that sort of thing, what do I know?"

"Not enough about BDSM etiquette, apparently. Is that how you got these scars?" Jason said, rolling the glass between fingers before gulping the liquid down when Joker waved his gun at Isabel.

Jason took Isabel's glass as well, gesturing at Joker:

"Hey, why don't you play with us too? Sticking to the theme. The former partner, the future one, and the  _ current _ ."

"What's that?" Joker pondered. "Do I detect a note of jealousy, here?"

Joker looked them over.

"I would have thought it's you who is going to be the most bitter about our special bond, mine and Bruce's," Joker said to Selina. "After all, all these rumors about retirement. What a girl to think? The new girlfriend tries to keep the old one away. But now I am not sure. Hm, here goes my first question. Did you ask him to hang up his suit?"

"No," Selina said.

She looked at Bruce, wondering why she felt so compelled to keep talking. It couldn't be fear, which she sure felt. But there was no way Joker knew answers to his questions if all of them were like this.

"I wouldn't marry him if he planned something like this," she said.

Bruce's face crumpled.

"I wouldn't be able to live with myself after, if something happened because of it, something that could have been prevented. But, most importantly, he just would not be the same man I thought he is. He wouldn't be the one I fell in love with. He wouldn't be my hero."

"Alright, great, moving on!" Joker shouted over Selina's voice.

She couldn't stop speaking, though, even if she was sure nobody heard her anymore. Whatever the weird-colored stuff was, it had some kind of truth serum effect. It didn’t mean that it couldn’t explode, knowing Joker.

"Bruce, so help me get this straight," Joker continued. "People on the streets, my less fortunate brethren, say you are shutting the business down. Your charming new wife - oh, but in another life, I knew her as a trusted colleague, we even went to the same conferences together at one point in time..."

Selina felt nauseous. It was a side-effect. Or, a symptom of her condition. Something like that, nothing more.

Joker rambled on.

"Six years ago, plus-minus some odd months. Hey, kiddo, how old are you, again?"

"Twenty-two," Jason said. "Or twenty-one."

"Not sure, are you? It's okay, we all had a year like that," Joker clapped him on the shoulder. "What I was talking about? Ah, yes, dear miss Kyle, remind me later to ask her about how our professional paths intercrossed. It would be a blast! You are going to love it to  _ death _ , kiddo."

Selina closed her eyes. The room was suddenly too hot. She flinched when someone touched her - but that was only Jason's girlfriend, keeping her steady. 

"But that's later, and now, to complete our first round... A question to Bruce. Are you, or are you not, planning to retire?"

"No."

Selina breathed out in relief. At least something went right tonight.

Joker didn't look satisfied with the answer. He moved the glass shards on the floor with his boot, then looked up at Bruce again, grinning.

"I see what you did here! Nice try. Let me rephrase that. Did you, prior to this evening, plan to just close the shop down? Leave and let someone else man the counter?"

Bruce gritted his teeth.

"Yes," he said, barely audible.

Selina heard. That was the only thing that got her to stop murmuring under her breath.

She was laughing now. She was, she had to admit, a little hysterical.

"Why?" she said, hiccupping.

"Because of you," Bruce said, turning to her. "For you. For us. I know about the baby, Selina. Doing what I do... it's not good for kids."

Jason snorted. Joker was watching them all in turn, like a ping-pong match.

Selina couldn't care less at the moment.

"There won't be any kids, Bruce."

"Of course there will be, I know you're pregnant already. And I want them to have a normal life. They won't have it as long as I am doing what I do."

"There won't be any kids!" Selina shouted. "There won't be, I'm having an abortion!"


	8. JASON

The crowd gasped.

The five of them were standing far enough away from anyone less to allow people to listen in to the Joker's game much. But of course, when Selina shut her mouth, the silence got so thick you could cut it with a butter knife. Everyone was staring. Someone was even filming, before Clark Kent softly but not leaving any room for discussion, asked them to give their smartphones to him.

It didn't matter. Selina could wake up tomorrow to headlines proclaiming her not only a gold-digger or a criminal but also a child-killer, she wouldn't care.

She and Bruce looked at one another.

"Oh, that's just perfect!" Joker laughed. "I had not predicted that. Just like they say, life is better than anything scripted!"

"Is that how you shitty writers console yourself?" Jason asked.

Joker dropped the smile.

"We are having a moment, here!" he said. "Do you have _ no sense  _ of dramatic timing?"

"I do, and it's fucking incredible, you were there. A better question is, are you  _ really  _ this pathetic? So Bruce is marrying. So Bruce is retiring. Why the fuck you're so obsessed with him? There are a lot of - you know, people doing this thing he does."

"Are you offering?"

"I am not _ against it  _ if you're game."

"Hard pass. I prefer more build-up and then explosive culmination! I tried it with you once, the overall emotional impact on the audience was meh. People forgot about it as soon as the new boy showed up. Aren't you pissed about that?"

Jason shrugged.

“Sure I was. Got it out of my system.  _ Again _ , you were there. You gotta move on, buddy,” Jason said with increasing volume. “Plenty of fish in the sea. Whadda ya say, we step outside and settle our differences, like, who wore it better, who Bruce hates more.”

“There’s no contest for the  _ last  _ one,” Joker said, taking Bruce by shoulders and clapping him on it. “Maybe he does care for me, in his own twisted way - and that’s why there wasn’t an invitation. He  _ wanted  _ me to move on!”

“Exactly,” Jason was nodding. “ _ And  _ I pull off red better than you. I mean, with your skin? Not a good color scheme. So you’re losing at  _ both _ .”

“You do look pretty in red,” Joker said, hands leaving Bruce. 

He made a motion to go over to Jason. And that’s, Selina got now, was what Red Hood was trying to do with all this ‘I feel you, buddy’ routine.

Joker had an overblown sense of self. Questioning it? Would be tailor-made to draw his ire off his intended targets while not blowing up anyone’s cover.

Only Bruce stopped Joker, gripping his wrist.

Because that’s what useless billionaires would do in a situation like that. Lay their hands on a maniac who threatens to kill everyone in the room (and there has to be something like three hundred people in there), and tell him in a growling voice, “ _ No _ .”

“Aw, Brucie, but he’s  _ right _ ! Maybe I  _ do _ need to move on, maybe you’re the one who holds  _ me  _ back,” Joker said and got his gun out again, pulled it on Bruce. 

Bruce didn’t let go.

Joker pulled it on Selina instead, directing the barrel onto her stomach.

Bruce released him.

Joker started to circling Bruce and Selina again.

“But how do you heal a broken heart? I suppose I could always kill you. Or take up the kid over there on his rebound offer. But would it show my commitment to get better? I am very committed when I want to be. I was committed over a dozen times!”

Joker pretended to think about it. 

"Okay, let’s try it your way. A test run. An audition, an interview, isn’t it a perfect coincidence? That’s what I planned all along. You already drunk your glass, give the other to your girl.“

"How about no,” Jason squared off his shoulders. “It’s my audition, not hers. You don’t even know your name. I won't be thinking about her as soon as I skip town if she doesn’t get possessed by my ex or something.”

While Joker was distracted, Selina noticed Bruce signing something. He kept his hand low, and it wasn’t a great angle for her to see exactly what if she didn’t want to attract attention to it.

"But I do! I do know her name," Joker said. "And where she lives, and where she works, and how long did it take her to recover the last time we met. Did you forget? You  _ were  _ there."

"I didn't," Jason said. "But can you blame a guy for trying?"

He shrugged and, instead of giving the shot glass to Isabel, he threw it at Joker's face.

Joker grinned. 

"You  _ cheater _ ! I am now  _ obligated  _ to take sanctions against you. After all, if there are no rules in the world, no accountability, how we will survive?"

"That's a rhetorical question, right?"

"You tell me, boy victim."

Joker grinned predatorily and said, waving a gun in Jason's direction, pulled his girlfriend to himself, "Say goodbye to your little girlfriend!"

Isabel shrieked, and lost her balance, and flicked her right hand up, and a gun went off, and Bruce was tackling Joker, and Joker was on the floor, still, bloody, and dead, dead, dead.

Nothing blew up.

Selina looked at Bruce, first. How he raised his head to check if anyone has been hit. How he breathed out in relief and then, looking down, frowned, confused by blood. How he glanced at Jason, hugging Isabel fiercely. Then his gaze lowered to where Jason was gripping Isabel's hand, not quite hiding the small, toy-like gun with a very shiny handle under his broad palm. The rails were visible now, too, the sleeve didn't hold up to the actual pull of the shot.

That's the power of smart dress design, Selina thought bizarrely. 

Maybe, she thought, she was too hasty with her opinions.


	9. SELINA

They arrested Isabel. The wildest part of the evening, really.

It was after guests were checked out by paramedics and uniform officers written down their names and addresses in case they needed them to give a statement. Express-tests ER performed showed that most of them had been under the influence of a mild scare toxin, including all the JL representatives in their civilian disguises. 

It wasn't the case with the four of them. Something was in their drinks, in their bloodstream, that much was certain. If it were nanobots or a truth serum or some magical elixir making the victim suggestible, it would take time to figure out. In any case, Joker wasn't bluffing about the explosives, but they were rigged around the exits of the Manor. Harley was really the one to control the switch but, after Stephanie and Cassandra rescued Ivy, she surrendered willingly. 

"I can check your blood downstairs," Bruce said in a low voice. "But I think you better go to the hospital."

"Bruce," Selina said, taking his hand. The white cuff of his shirt had blood on it, now. "Do you think, after all this, I would change my mind?"

His face at that moment reminded her of their earlier days. They just started to get to know each other. Bruce was certain she could change, do the right thing, return what was stolen. Selina didn't think there was anything wrong with what she did if you thought about who she was stealing from, and how they got it, and what she planned to do with her spoils after.

"I think it's possible. If it's me you don't want around the child, that's fine," he said in the end. "I don't... I will keep my distance."

"Why do you think it's about  _ you _ ?"

Bruce looked at Jason, who was hugging near-hysterical Isabel to himself. One of the detectives was asking them something but they were too far away now to hear what.

Selina didn't know what they could be asking her. Just give the girl a medal and let her go home.

"I had another child," he said.

Selina turned to him so fast she pulled a muscle in her neck.

"With Talia," Bruce explained. "I knew about that pregnancy. It was way before Damian. We were in love. She said, she would leave her father if I leave Gotham. I said, we could make it work here."

"Where's the child now? Why..."

"She died. That's what Talia said to me. She was supposed to run away and join me here. But she miscarried. The girl did not survive. I always kept thinking, if I was the one who came to Talia. Brought her to safety. We could have moved to Metropolis, maybe. Superman was active there already, then, but didn't collect his gallery of rogues yet."

Selina touched his shoulder. He looked at her, briefly, and then turned away, hiding behind an impassive mask. Watching the interrogation scene a few feet over. 

"Even Talia recognized that I'm not the best father," he said eventually. "So I will understand if you feel the same."

"Yes," Selina snorted, "and then she went and get herself pregnant with another child of yours. Because she thought so poorly of your parenting skills."

"I don't think she had much choice in the matter," Bruce said.

What?

"Besides, you know it's true, now. Tim and Cassandra told me you talked with them about Jason. I assume you talked with Alfred, too?"

"And with Ric," Selina said. "But on the scale of a perfect parent who doesn't exist and Ra's al Ghul, I think you're pretty much in the middle. At least, you never killed one of your kids."

Bruce was quiet.

"You did?"

"I am not sure," Bruce said. "It's another question I would have to ask Talia."

Selina was still standing there, touching this complete stranger she married today.

"How did it happen?"

By now, she started to understand it wasn't the stress making Bruce unloading all these things. It wasn't his innate desire to share his secrets with her.

It's just seemed to be, whatever was in their blood right now, made him incapable of not telling the truth. If she was a good person, she would have stopped asking questions. Bruce, after all, didn't ask her anything in return. And he had to understand what was happening between them right now.

Some marriages, Selina felt, were not built to last.

"He made me do it," Bruce said. "He left me no other choice. It was always like this with him. He pushed, and pushed, and pushed."

"Until you snap."

She felt cold. Her hand on Bruce's shoulder the only thing that was keeping her upright. Yet, she wanted to wipe it on her dress. It was clammy. She left it on for the time being.

"Did you hit him?"

"Before his death? Only for training."

"Have you..."

"Bruce!" Jason shouted.

Selina looked over to him again. The detective that was talking to him and Isabel was trying to lead Isabel away, and Jason wasn't letting him, so there were two cops on their way to them.

Bruce strode forward. Selina slipped her shoes off and went after him, side-stepping the small pool of blood.

"Bruce, this is such bullshit! Tell them it wasn't a murder. It was self-defense. Call Gordon, Spencer, whoever you call to get things done. They can't arrest her!"

"Your fiance took a gun to a wedding," the detective said irritably but made a 'stop' gesture at the uniformed cops, signaling their help was not needed yet.

Selina didn't know them. They must have been new.

"The only other armed person here was the Joker. Do you understand why the GCPD may have some additional questions for her? She doesn't have a license."

"It's Gotham, for fuck's sake!"

Bruce reached them and took the detective aside.

"Please," he told them, smiling. "It was a stressful evening. Let me just talk to them for a second, I'm sure we can straighten things up in no time."

The detective was charmed by Brucie as much as everyone ever was. They nodded and gave them five minutes to talk.

When Bruce turned to Jason, there was not a trace of that smile. Selina used to hate the fake mask Bruce put on in front of the public but right now, she thought it was much more pleasant sight.

"Did you plan all of it?" he asked in cold fury. 

"No. What? Are you out of your mind, do you think I, what, invited Joker here?"

"Yes," Bruce said. "I think it is not very far-reaching. You wanted Joker dead, and you wanted to punish me. Still. After all those years. What was that what you said to me, the first time when the issue came up?"

"You should have killed him," Jason repeated, his eyes becoming dull. Now it was him clinging to Isabel, it seemed, and not the other way around. The girl stopped crying, too. "Because he took me away from you."

Jason shook his head. He detached himself from Isabel. Squared off against Bruce.

"I had many opportunities to plot his murder after that, too. I didn't. I followed your rules. But you are never going to trust me, are you?"

"No. I allowed your obsession to go unchecked for long enough. This ends now. Confess, and I will make sure Isabel is out on bail in no time. She will get a deal and return to her regular life. Just explain. How did you organize all of this?"

"I didn't. You saw me drinking the same shit you did, you know I can't lie right now." 

"Unless you prepared antidot in advance."

That's her Bruce, Selina thought. Always has an answer to everything.

"He didn't," Isabel said, suddenly. Her eyes were still puffy and red, mascara everywhere. But her breath was even for a someone hiccupping with tears only a minute before. "I never felt safe in Gotham anymore. Joker got me once. It was when I and Jason were attempting this whole dating thing for the first time. He pimped me full of drugs. I overdosed. He did things to my body... Arranged it so Jason would find me, like he did his mom. He had crime scene photos and everything. We couldn't even look at each other for years after that. I hated being alone in the apartment. I hated leaving my apartment. Basically, the only time I felt safe was when I was working. On a plane, in the air. And Jason, he got me a dog. It helped, some. Still, leaving home, going somewhere, sometimes it's so hard. I got myself a gun. No permit, of course. My overdose is documented. Nobody would give a gun to a junkie. But the gun, it helped. If I'm not working, and I need to leave the house, it's always on me. But I never shot anybody. I never shot a gun before tonight. I didn't even think about it. I was too scared. I feared that if I tried to pull it, and failed, he would have killed me, and Jason, and who knows who else. But then he grabbed me, and it was all instinct, really. The mechanism works that way: if I flick my right hand forward, the motion is going to pull the lever, and the mechanism for the rails will get engaged, and that's how the gun comes out. It was just a second. He pulls me to him, and I'm waving my hand, and suddenly there's a gun in my hand, and I'm pulling the trigger."

Jason looked at her with horror.

Understandable. Not the horrifying story about what this girl had come through. Selina suspected he knew it before. But how she held herself, the way her face was an unemotional mask to rival's Bruce's. In fact, their expressions were eerily similar, now.

"You are not a natural blonde, are you," Selina said.

It wasn't even a question. Isabel did not look offended.

Bruce said:

"I won't help you."

Isabel found and squeezed Jason's hand, reassuring.

"I never expected you to. I don't need your help. It was self-defense. It was an accident. It was the Joker. And it was worth it."

She smiled.

"I love you," Jason said. "Fuck. I have a type."

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr: [redjaybathood](https://redjaybathood.tumblr.com/)  
> And shootout to [Edgelord Central](https://discord.gg/QFTrfB)  
> \- which is an awesome Jason Todd server where the idea for this fic was born. You guys were awesome.


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